A Step by step approach on how to build an email marketing campaign

1. 1
How to build an
Email
Marketing
Strategy

2. 2
Table of Contents
Creating an Email Marketing Strategy 3
Step One: Define Email Marketing 4
Step Two: Set Goals 5
Lead Generation and Sales Cycle Analysis 6
Step Three: Your List 8
Collecting Data at the Right Time 9
Plan for a Growing Email List 9
Step Four: Organize by Department or Group 10
Step Five: Plan for Content 11
Step Six: Bottom Line 12
Worksheets: Set Goals 13
Your List 14
Organize by Department or group 15
Plan for Content 16
Bottom Line 17
Looking Ahead 18

3. 3
Creating an Email Marketing Strategy
Whether you are already using a form of email marketing and need to convince management to
upgrade your strategy or you are completely new to the topic and need to show the importance of
email, you should think about these major steps.
Step One: Define Email Marketing
Email marketing can mean lots of things to lots of people. To some it involves renting lists from 3rd
parties while for others it means cultivating relationships with your existing contacts to drive sales
as well as customer retention. For the purposes of this document, we define email marketing as the
latter.
Step Two: Set Goals
Remember that you need to communicate the purpose of email marketing for your organization.
Start with a goal so that others can see how it ties into the overall business strategy.
Step Three: Your List
Your contacts form the foundation of your strategy. After all, you’re building a strategy around
communicating with them. Your goals are tied to their actions. Your lists are the most important
piece of the puzzle. Successful email marketing is a result of sending relevant content, so your plan
should include learning as much as you can about your contacts.
Step Four: Organize by Department or Group
How many people will use email marketing within your organization? Is it just for corporate
communications or will the PR folks use it? Web group? Product marketing? Channel marketing?
The toolkit will provide advice to help you get organized so that marketing can still have some control
over the consistency of all communications.
Step Five: Plan for Content
One of the biggest reasons newsletters die is that people can’t come up with content at deadline.
Create an editorial calendar for your newsletters and have this ready with your proposal.
Step Six: Bottom Line
People love numbers. Be prepared to discuss the ROI and the metrics you will use to determine
your success.
This document is organised around these main steps. Worksheets are provided at the end of the
document to help you capture your thoughts. Let’s get started by looking at each of these in more
detail.

4. 4
step one
Define Email Marketing
Before you begin to create your email marketing strategy, you should define what email marketing
means to your organization.
If email marketing had existed in 1828 when Noah Webster first published his American Dictionary of
the English Language, the definition might have gone something like this:
e•mail mar•ket•ing n. The use of email to deliver permission-
based communications to build relationships, increase sales and
improve customer retention.
They key to the above definition is permission. While your organization may also rent or purchase
lists to grow your business, this document will only focus on strategies for permission-based or in-
house lists. Many organisations have realized that although building a house-list may take longer, it
proves its value very quickly.
The definition also mentions customer retention. Email is by far the most popular way to stay in touch
with existing customers. By providing valuable information and updates based on their interests, email
can help build a relationship between the organization and the customer.
But there’s a far more meaningful definition of email marketing: what it means to you and your
business. Defining the purpose of email marketing for your organization is critical and will be the
driving force for all other email activities.

5. 5
step two
Set Goals
MarketingSherpa, publisher of case studies and research on internet marketing, posted an article in
early 2005 about the top five frustrations in email marketing. Frustration #5 was the lack of respect
that email received from management. Email can be seen as a tactical and inexpensive way to reach
out to prospects and customers to quickly increase sales or drive traffic to the website. It’s a valid but
very short-sighted view. By building a sound strategy, you will be able to set expectations for long
term success up front and alleviate those frustrations.
So, here’s the most important question you need to answer: What is the purpose of email marketing
for your organization?
Other important questions to answer include why email marketing? What will email marketing
contribute to your existing marketing efforts? How will your marketing efforts tie together? What is
your current lead generation process? How will email marketing contribute to lead generation? Do
you communicate with customers on a regular basis already? Does email marketing replace or
complement any other communication strategies?
Still not sure? Here are a few examples of how different organizations use email marketing:
The non-profit Audubon Nature Institute created a newsletter for each major audience:
Members, Non-Members, and Community Leaders. The Member newsletter validates membership
through unique content, the non-member newsletter drives additional traffic to the various parks, and
the leader newsletter communicates activities as a result of donations.
E-Commerce vendor Lydia’s Uniforms uses newsletters and email alerts to drive additional online
sales, but they planned in advance what type of information they would collect so that they could
segment their audience by various fields. They send special promos based on customers favourite
brands or products. The highly relevant content has contributed to their overall success.

6. 6
Lead Generation and Sales Cycle Analysis
At the very highest level you will probably be communicating with two groups of people: customers
and non-customers. As part of your lead generation process, the email newsletter can help solidify
your relationship with the non-customer or prospect. By outlining your organization’s process, you
can see where opportunities exist.
basic process Acquisition RETENTION
Promotions
Ads
Direct Mail Action
Website
Buy
Thank You
Download
Trade Shows Register
PR
Word of Mouth
This diagram is a simple illustration of a lead generation process without email marketing. It shows
visitors reaching the site and then taking a certain action. Currently the only follow up is a Thank You
page that may show a receipt or confirmation.
Let’s highlight some of the problems with this process.
Web-centric - there is no effort towards customer retention. It is a very transactional approach.
Lost opportunity - there is no collection of information for those that don’t act immediately. What about
those conducting research who want to learn more about your offering or your industry?
On the next page, we’ll take a look at a scenario with email marketing integrated into the process.

7. 7
INTEGRATED EMAIL MARKETING
Acquisition RETENTION
Promotions
Ads
Action
Buy
Download
Direct Mail
Register
Website
Invitation/Welcome
Email and
Trade Shows Regular Communication
PR Sign up for
Newsletter
Word of Mouth
This diagram mirrors the previous illustration but shows how easily you can use an email newsletter to capture
leads that may only be researching at the time of the web-site visit.
Lead Acquisition
The newsletter signup form captures prospects that may not be ready to take other actions. By
creating a newsletter or other communication for this audience, you can begin to build a
relationship with them that can lead to sales or other desired action in the future. Without this
regular communication, the contact could easily forget about your organization the minute they
exit the website.
Customer Retention
For those that do take a desired action on the website, the process now includes a welcome
email that invites them to stay in touch with your company.
Additional benefits of adding email marketing to lead generation and the sales cycle:
• Viral marketing opportunities enable
word of mouth marketing.
• Reinforcement of brand with continual
communication.
• Regular communication improves
customer loyalty
• Feedback from tracking reports
provides info on interest levels
• Ability to communicate with customers/
prospects based on past behaviour
• Drives traffic to website

8. 8
step three
Your List
Successful email marketing starts with a quality list. After all, Marketing 101 tells us that we need to
know our audience. Do you know your list? Take some time to note what information you have now
and make a plan for how to capture additional information over time. The more you know about your
readers, the easier it will be to provide valuable content within your communications. For our example
company, their lists currently look like this:
List Name Source of List Permission? Status Known Fields
Customers CRM Yes
Exported and name, address,
ready phone, email
Product A
Trade Show
No, need to Spreadsheet,
name, email
Prospects invite ready
Interested
Website Yes Text file, ready email
Prospects
Now think about what information you have and what you’d like to know about new prospects and
customers. Typical information below:
• Demographics (marital status, income, location, etc)
• Interest area (product A or B, specific service, information, etc)
• Amount purchased, donated, etc
• Business info (industry, title, etc)
• Time frame for making a decision
• Budget
The most powerful aspect of email marketing software is that you can segment your contacts based
on known information, letting you send targeted and personal messages.

9. 9
Collecting Data at the Right Time
After you have determined what type of data you have and what you need, the next step is to
determine at what point you collect that information. Do you ask for it all up front? De-pending on
your target audience, you may need to limit the amount of information asked initially so you don’t
put customers off. Here are a few additional times you can collect information:
• Have the Thank You page ask for
additional information post-
subscription.
• Include survey questions throughout the
life of the newsletter.
• Include a survey in the confirmation or
welcome email.
• Prompt subscribers to update their
information periodically.
Plan for a Growing Email List
An important element of any email marketing strategy includes plans for continuing to grow the list.
Below are ideas for planned tactics to promote each newsletter.
• Include “forward to friend” in all
outbound emails.
• Drive all prospects to website from
all advertising.
• Have newsletter opt-in box in
checkout of e-commerce area of
website.
• Put website on all basic company
docs: stationary, business cards,
etc.
• Have customer service ask all
callers if they’d like to receive
newsletter.
• Add sign up form for newsletter on
the website in prominent area.
• Collect emails at checkout in retail
stores. (if applicable)
• Collect email addresses at trade
shows and other events.
• Mention the newsletter(s) and
website on the Hold music for
inbound calls.
• Have support staff ask all callers if
they’d like to receive newsletter.
• Include link to newsletter sign up form in email signature (all employees, especially support
and customer service staff)
If you have no list and are starting from scratch we suggest:
• Appending email addresses to your existing prospect/customer database
• Start collecting email addresses from website.

10. 10
step four
Organise by Department or Group
So far, we have reviewed the purpose of email marketing and have looked at how it can complement
existing marketing activities and provide a way to capture new leads and help build relationships. You
know your audience now, so the next phase of building your email marketing strategy involves getting
organized internally.
After you have outlined how email marketing can fit into your own process and have identified your
audience, you will start to see many opportunities of how to organize the information to reach your
original goals.
A simple communication chart will help you understand the role of each of your external
communications and will help you get a feel for the resources required to produce each item.
Here’s an example:
Communication Owner Audience Format Purpose Frequency
Customers,
Monthly
Marketing
advocates,
Template Retention Monthly
newsletter community,
analysts
Promotion update
Product Prospects, Unique
Acquisition As neededMarketing customers each time
Press release PR Journalists
Stationary
Inform As needed
template
Industry Channel Prospects,
Template Retention Bi-monthly
newsletter Marketing customers
As you can see from this example, opportunities for email communications exist among other
departments.

11. 11
step five
Plan for Content
Now that you know who you are communicating with and the type of communication you want to
produce, you need to plan the actual content for each item. To do this, you should create an editorial
calendar. This will help you prepare for the future and ensure that each communication contains
relevant content.
Our example company produces a monthly newsletter. Here’s their editorial calendar for the first five
months of the year:
Communication January February March April May
Monthly
2005
Industry Product
Big
New
results, customer
newsletter update launch contest
highlights win
And so on. Don’t forget to decide how many topics will be covered in each newsletter. Some focus
only on one topic, others have 5-10 topics per issue.
The possibilities are endless with email. But don’t forget the main reason why you are sending these
emails – they should be valuable to your audience. Don’t just send content because you have a list
of people to receive it.

12. 12
step six
Bottom Line
As with any critical marketing function, you need to define metrics for success. For each type of
publication, you should outline what will represent success. Sharing these metrics will help
communicate with all involved how email can truly impact the organization. Here are a few ideas of
items to be used as metrics:
Email Marketing Reports
• Open Rate – The number of messages
opened is a general metric to gauge
interest
• Click-Through Rate – Number of people
that clicked through a link within your
message. This is a very good metric to
measure interest and activity.
Business Metrics
• Conversions by source – The number of
people that took a specific action as a
result of your message.
• Forward rate – How many times the
message was forwarded to others. This
measures viral marketing or “buzz”
• Leads by source – track leads from
email forwarding or referral.
• Website traffic before email marketing
and after.
• Customer retention before email
marketing and after.
Benchmarking
• Sales metrics before email
marketing and trends after.
• Website traffic the day an email
goes out.
• Conversion rate from email before
and after initiating email marketing.
Strategise monitors average open and click-through rates for all customers. To learn more about
how you can benchmark your numbers against averages in your industry, contact us.

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Worksheet: Set Goals
ANSWER THIS
What is the purpose of email marketing for your organization?
DIAGRAM THIS
Outline your current process for lead generation through to customer
communication. Show where people are coming from and where you are driving
them to and what you want them to do. Do as many outlines as you need if you
have different processes for different groups or industry verticals.
ANSWER THIS
What are the issues with the above process? What opportunities are you missing?

14. 14
Worksheet: Your List
COMPLETE THIS
Write down all sources of customer and lead information and their status.
List Name Source of List
Email
Status Known Fields
Permission?
List all the other fields you have or hope to have for each contact. After you have
deter-mined which fields you have or need, then you can determine at what point in
the lead generation process you request that information.
Field Where to Capture That Information

15. 15
Worksheet: Organise by Department or Group
COMPLETE THIS
Use this table to develop your email communication chart.
Communication Owner Audience Format Purpose Frequency
• Communication – the various publications or types of messages that you’ll be sending?
• Owner – which department of your company this communication belongs to?
• Audience – the recipients of your publications.
• Format – the planned look of the message. Some may be rich text, others may be a
formatted template used each time, others will be unique each time, etc.
• Purpose – perhaps the most important, why are you sending this email?
• Frequency – determine how often you plan to send each item.

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Worksheet: Plan for Content
COMPLETE THIS
Build a suggested topic list for each item on your email communication content
plan. Remember that not all items have to be sent regularly – typically only
newsletters are sent on a regular basis.
Communication
If you’re having trouble thinking of different topics for your individual communications, look at other
newsletters. There are tons of websites out there with ideas for how to write a successful newsletter.
Just a few resources that we like:
Marketing Sherpa – www.marketingsherpa.com
Email Universe – www.emailuniverse.com
MarketingProfs – www.marketingprofs.com

17. 17
Worksheet: Bottom Line
COMPLETE THIS
Determine your metrics for success. It would also be a good idea to document those
stats as they are now if you know them. You can use them as a baseline to build from.
Metric Current stats

18. 18
Looking Ahead
After you have set up your lists and have a plan for what you’ll be
sending to and to whom, spend some time thinking even further
ahead. What will your lists look like in 6 months? If you could further
divide lists into more specific segments, what would those segments
be? And have you collected the information to get you there?
Email is organic – things are always growing and changing. What
interests a customer one year can change the next year. Customers
change or discard email addresses. Knowing where your email
communications are taking you will only help your marketing strategy.
What are the next steps? Establish the “launch” date for your first
new campaign. Build a project plan that lists everything you need to
successfully launch your campaign List owners for each item and
deadlines. Major items include the list, the content, and the creative.
Communicate your activities and plans to others in your organization.
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